Just wanted to thank everyone for their advice on here while I was force fetching my pup this winter. At first I wondered what the point was for force fetching, but once you do it you can easily see the difference and why it is a worthwhile attribute for the dog to possess. I hated every second of it, but it was worth every ear pinch.

Apparently, the ear pinch method even works on kids :-)

Anyway, Buck and I are off to the wonderful world of blinds and the start of handling now. It's so much fun to hide bumpers while he's inside the house and take him out there and send him back to fetch an object he has no idea is there and see him run right to it. You can tell he absolutely loves it.

Hopefully my schedule clears up this March so I can get him to some hunt tests to get his started complete.